With the movie industry’s awards season swiftly approaching, people can start to expect some of the best films of the year to release in the coming months. Though there are several mainstream film contenders that have maintained popular interest, there are many lesser known that are not receiving a standard wide theatrical release. “A House of Dynamite,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is one of these and just released on streaming Oct. 24. Despite Bigelow’s outstanding filmography, the film becomes redundant and doesn’t match the prestige expected of an awards contender.
The movie follows the lives of several employees of the federal government. What seemingly started out as a normal day gets flipped on its head when they discover that a missile sent off by a foreign country is heading for a major American city.
The film takes the time to highlight several different characters, as it replays the events happening that day from the several perspectives of the players involved solving the problem. This is done wonderfully the first time, where the narrative consists of a captain of the White House Situation Room. This is the first time we learn the information, and while the camera doesn’t restrict itself to staying only in that setting, we get a brief introduction into the role of the others in the Pentagon, military bases, etc. The situation room scenes consist of the proper tension, as the cutting to the characters, then to the clock, and then back to the scrambling employees is effective at keeping the audience at the edge of its seat.
Before we can see what happens with the missile, it cuts to another character’s story. We are taken back to the initial discovery of the missile and back through the several Zoom and phone calls that lead up to the involvement of the President. This happens a couple of more times, with none of the other character plots matching the anticipation of the first. We don’t learn any new information that validates jumping around the timeline. No questions get answered and you don’t get personal attachment to any of the characters through this method. If we don’t properly learn about the lives that are at stake, the imminent doom they are facing matters significantly less to the audience.
Not only is the jumping back and forth between characters pointless but also confusing. It feels like there is no proper indication of the switch of the setting; the only hint we get is of chapter titles that appear on the screen. These are improperly introduced and do not correlate with the characters to follow. Despite this, it becomes relatively easy to catch on after a while, and doesn’t do a bad job at holding the audience’s attention.
Seeing the intermixing of the stacked cast is the most interesting thing about the movie. The movie stars Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, Jonah Hauer-King, Jason Clarke, Kyle Allen, Tracy Letts, and Kaitlyn Dever, just to name a few. Everyone does a decent job with their performance, but unfortunately no one gets enough screen time to form an attachment to the audience.
Kathryn Bigelow, who helmed this film, is the first female director to win an Oscar for Best Directing for her 2009 film “Hurt Locker.” Though she absolutely nailed the tension in the first act of the film, the rest of the film does not live up to par. The camera does interesting things with small micro-zooms and wide shots to help contribute to a documentary feel, but otherwise feels lackluster despite the film involving such high stakes.
“A House of Dynamite” is a thriller that is lacking suspense, but still manages to maintain audience attention throughout.
A House of Dynamite is now streaming on Netflix.